3 July 1841 The Hunt

The old English custom of the gentry riding to hounds was not forgotten in the new colony of South Australia for as early as 3 July 1841 the Governor and about 25 horsemen with hounds met at the Halfway House on the Glenelg Road for a day’s hunting. A wild dog was provided as quarry and the hunt set off with the ladies in carriages viewing the progress. Not so amused were the landowners over whose properties the hunt rode. Without foxes to hunt, wild dogs, kangaroos and emus were the victims. However, through lack of support hunting as a sport declined and the packs of hounds were dispersed in the 1850s. The ‘sport’ was revived again in 1869 by the Messrs Blackler who announced that huntsmen should assemble at the Morphett Arms on the Bay Road at 10 am on 24 May. The event attracted many interested huntsmen and spectators and from then on hunts were conducted from various places, including the Brocas on Woodville Road owned by old Etonian, John Newman. In 1901 Simpson Newland was president of the Adelaide Hunt Club which held meets in the Erindale, Burnside area.

Judith Brown, Town Life in Pioneer South Australia, Rigby, 1980, pp204-06.